Best Or Worst Job

[Lunchbox]

Worst: As an apprentice, 206 boost pump outdoors at -30, and getting soaked in jetfuel when things didn't quit work out as was planned by the engineer.

 

Best: A 206 in the NWT, high enough in the mountains were there were hardly any bugs and light enough to not use a flashlight at 2am working on a 100hr, with local wildlife (of the non man-eating variety) keeping me company. Funnest inspection I ever did.

[Lunchbox]

I re-opened the panel, stuffed my light inside and realized that the 'coffee can' had exploded due to a plethora of dead birds that had collected in said orifice. Those that were not hung up in the remanents of the can had been dragged through all the flight control pulleys and cables.

 

You win, man. I guess the upside is that every job afterwards, no matter how crappy, will never seem quite that bad in comparison. :shock:

[T55]

Worst Job: I spent the worst month of my life wrenching a 204 on fires in Pukatawagan, Man.

The 204 was good, the setting wasn't. The town was evacuated except for essential crew of the local variety..........dog packs running wild.............locals shooting and stabbing each other....I could go on and on.

 

Best job: Pretty much everything else in my career

[Max Continuous]

Worst Job: I spent the worst month of my life wrenching a 204 on fires in Pukatawagan, Man.

The 204 was good, the setting wasn't. The town was evacuated except for essential crew of the local variety..........dog packs running wild.............locals shooting and stabbing each other....I could go on and on.

 

Best job: Pretty much everything else in my career

Hey round-eye! I hear it wasn't so bad after they raked up all the broken glass and dog crap. I also heard you got a nice kiss from "Mary" so how bad could it have been?

Max

"Kill me now so I can go home!!"

[ValKiran.mtc]

Most tedious job ever:

 

Logged over 100 hours of sanding Astar canopies and cowls for repair prep...most of it hand sanding and in consecutive eight hour days.

 

Longest single job ever:

 

Cleaning all the longerons, stringers and internal airframe in the a$$ end of a Firecat for paint prep while it underwent a turbine conversion: spent six weeks in close communication with a toothbrush.

 

Most Painful Job ever:

 

Two weeks spent paint stripping parts using a dark purple nasty goo; and really hot water to wash them...near the end, and on the last pair, didn't realize the insides of the gloves has become soaked...thought the tingling was from the water temperatures......until after a long weekend the skin on the first three fingers and thumb on my left hand, and the thumb and forefinger of my right hand, came off like a glove. Lost all the layers of skin..right down to the pink...owee!!! Had to keep the left hand soaked in almond oil and bandaged for the next ten days until the skin was tough enough to expose to the air and wouln't bleed. Ever since then, that's the only job I"ll complain about doing-paintstripping.

 

Best job ever:

 

Apprenticing on a logging 214 in Sayward, and sitting in the hottub with a cold drink at midnight after maintenance. Anytime I'm out with my own machine, really..>I love it. and Looking forward to gaining more experience....love that too.

[Lunchbox]

and sitting in the hottub with a cold drink at midnight after maintenance.

 

Did that once. Chasing an A-star on fires, and the only accomodation left in the area was a ski lodge. Phoned the DOM with updated a/c hours that night from the hot tub, and had to turn the jets off after he complained about not being able to hear me over the phone. :punk:

[ray]

ValKiran, you sure have had your share of #### jobs!

 

There was the one tour where Max Continuous and I were on a Forestry contract in Ontario.

Didn't need to show up till noon. Work till 9:00pm. All summer.

Needed rehab when we got back home. He may still have those pictures.

 

One tour, having just flown into town the night before, where I recieved a phone call in my hotel room around 1:00am from some lady looking for her daughter. Told her she had the wrong number.

She asked if this was 'Ray'. Yup. Her daughter worked at the front desk and had obviously mentioned my name once or twice. Joined her for some rum at 1:00am. She gave me permission to move in with her daughter.

It was an interesting 2 months.

 

(I was young and single then, JR).

[Max Continuous]

ValKiran, you sure have had your share of #### jobs!

 

There was the one tour where Max Continuous and I were on a Forestry contract in Ontario.

Didn't need to show up till noon. Work till 9:00pm. All summer.

Needed rehab when we got back home. He may still have those pictures.

 

One tour, having just flown into town the night before, where I recieved a phone call in my hotel room around 1:00am from some lady looking for her daughter. Told her she had the wrong number.

She asked if this was 'Ray'. Yup. Her daughter worked at the front desk and had obviously mentioned my name once or twice. Joined her for some rum at 1:00am. She gave me permission to move in with her daughter.

It was an interesting 2 months.

 

(I was young and single then, JR).

[ValKiran.mtc]

The guys I worked with at Conair were fabulous!!! They'd bring me a CinnZeo (when there still was a CinnZeo in the area) or every once and a while let me in on a really cool job-like getting a DC-6 ready for first start up of the year; prop and power checks, giving me a clip board with all the info I needed to take on the test flight...made me want to work harder for them. When I did my job, then they could do their job, and everything would go smoothly.

 

I was hired as an aircraft groomer, and I did the s*** jobs...that was just the way it was. I knew I would take my schooling, then I'd get different s*** jobs...then slowly I'd work my way up, to the point where I could hand them off to my very own apprentice. Its gratifying to know that I'm at a point now, where I don't do those jobs unless its only me that's there, because my time is better spent wrenching.

 

Just about the only drawback that gives me is that I take a rather perverse pleasure in hearing someone complain about the scraping/cleaning/whatever that they are doing (scraping proseal is a sweet job, as opposed to scraping dead birds from flight controls or sanding for weeks on end, if you think about it). Because as long as they are complaining about it...I'm not the one doing it.

[arctic_front]

The guys I worked with at Conair were fabulous!!! They'd bring me a CinnZeo (when there still was a CinnZeo in the area) or every once and a while let me in on a really cool job-like getting a DC-6 ready for first start up of the year; prop and power checks, giving me a clip board with all the info I needed to take on the test flight...made me want to work harder for them. When I did my job, then they could do their job, and everything would go smoothly.

 

I was hired as an aircraft groomer, and I did the s*** jobs...that was just the way it was. I knew I would take my schooling, then I'd get different s*** jobs...then slowly I'd work my way up, to the point where I could hand them off to my very own apprentice. Its gratifying to know that I'm at a point now, where I don't do those jobs unless its only me that's there, because my time is better spent wrenching.

 

Just about the only drawback that gives me is that I take a rather perverse pleasure in hearing someone complain about the scraping/cleaning/whatever that they are doing (scraping proseal is a sweet job, as opposed to scraping dead birds from flight controls or sanding for weeks on end, if you think about it). Because as long as they are complaining about it...I'm not the one doing it.

 

 

Gooooood on ya, Val! Where were apprentices like you when I needed them? You've truly earned your AME lic. I hope you continue to enjoy the experience and lessons learned for the rest of your career. Hope you enjoy/ enjoyed the Yukon while you were here

 

cheers